1-Umpire mechanics question

[jTheUmp]

Thanks for all the suggestions, it's given me a lot to think about.

Re: why go 6-4-5 instead of 6-4-3: both R1 and R2 "Froze" when the ball was hit, and didn't start running again until the ball was clearly on the ground... BR was sprinting immediately on contact, so by the time F6 recovered the ball and threw to F4, BR was about 2/3 of the way to 1st and R2 was about halfway between 2nd and 3rd... so the easier play was actually on R2.

RE: hiring two... believe me, we've tried. All of these schools claim they don't have the money for it... and I believe about 15% of them, although I don't believe it in the case of either school that was playing in this game.

Hell, last night I had a minor sh-tstorm on the part of a coach in a 1-umpire game after an attempted pickoff play on R3 after a pitch. (talk about having NO angle whatsoever). A quick "Coach, I need a second set of eyes to make that call" didn't necessarily calm him down, but it did get him to shut up and retreat back to his dugout.